Woman fights for street repairs for three decades

Lark Ellen Lane resident Frances Mitchell, 82, has fought for decades to make a government agency take responsibility for street repairs on the public service easement that provides access to six Covina, Calif. homes west of Lark Ellen Avenue Sept. 5, 2013. (Staff photo by Leo Jarzomb/Pasadena Star-News)

Lark Ellen Lane resident Frances Mitchell, 82, has fought for decades to make a government agency take responsibility for street repairs on the public service easement that provides access to six Covina, Calif. homes west of Lark Ellen Avenue Sept. 5, 2013. (Staff photo by Leo Jarzomb/Pasadena Star-News)

Frances Mitchell has spent 36 years trying to get the tiny six-house lane in front of her home repaired.

North Lark Ellen Lane, whittled down to near gravel, has not received any real maintenance since Mitchell began her battle in 1977 because the county considers the lane a private easement, making it the responsibility of the families which live along it.

“I have been at this for so long,” she said.

A contractor recently working on a neighbor’s driveway used excess cement to plug the potholes, but more work is still needed, Mitchell said.

For years, Mitchell has pled for help from any public agency she could. The 82-year-old has frequently attended Covina city council meetings, petitioned Covina-Valley school officials and fought with the county board of supervisors.

Officials in Covina say the land falls outside of their jurisdiction while CVUSD’s administrators — Lark Ellen Elementary sits right next door — point out they own no part of the lane. Each knew Mitchell by name, but could offer no help.

Lark Ellen Lane — a tiny diagonal easement off Lark Ellen Avenue, between San Bernardino Road and Cypress Street — rests in the unincorporated county by everyone’s assessment. The lane is the only means of reaching the six homes.

The county places the burden of repair on the residents, something Mitchell, who lives on social security and receives government assistance to fix up her house, said is impossible. The idea that U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will fix her house, but no government agency will touch her street, seems ridiculous, she said.

Mitchell’s skirmishes with county officials landed Lark Ellen Lane on the map — literally. She fought to include the lane on street listings after a resident died when an ambulance could not find the street, she said. After the death, she also put up her own street sign, which the county has since replaced with an official one. Later she also got street lights added.

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Her problems started in 1973 when a company working on Lark Ellen Avenue nearly blocked off the entrance to the easement because he was unaware it existed, she said. Four years later, she called the road department requesting maintenance, but got denied.

“They don’t want to be bothered with something this size,” she said.

She came closest to getting the repairs in 1979 when she said supervisor Kenneth Hahn championed her cause.

“He wanted it to get straightened out,” she said.

The county wrote to each property owner at the time asking them to “convey their interest in Lark Ellen Lane to the County of Los Angeles for public alley purposes and to agree to provide the necessary financial support for the required improvements.”

Four of the six owners opposed the idea, according to county documents. One owner asked the county to pay him.

None of the owners who signed the declaration still live on the street, she said.

“They’re all dead or gone,” she said.

In order for Los Angeles County to accept the easement into its maintenance system, the residents would need to first pay to make the lane meet the county’s public road standards, according to Mike Kaspar, a spokesperson for the department of public works. The county has maintained this position since the beginning, Kaspar said.

“It goes back to Sept. 1977, when she first contacted us requesting maintenance on Lark Ellen Lane,” Kaspar said.

Mitchell maintains that she never agreed to make the lane private. The county says William and Helga Broshears deeded the private easement to five out of the six Lark Ellen lane properties, including Mitchell’s property, in 1961.

Mitchell bought her home in 1963.

“I bought a house and lawn like everybody else, I didn’t buy Lark Ellen Lane,” she said.

Mitchell did not sign a Declaration of Road Maintenance filed with the county 10 years later.

Covina Councilmember Kevin Stapleton told Mitchell he’d send a letter to County Supervisor Michael Antonovich asking for help for Mitchell, but the letter is likely to fall flat.

Antonovich told Mitchell in a letter in 1996 that her the lane is a “driveway on private property.”

“These tasks must be done at your expense,” Antonovich wrote.

An estimate received by Mitchell puts the costs of the repairs — and for peace of mind for the 50-year county resident — at more than $15,000.